MHS, Lee get pretty much what they expected from UIL

Len Hayward

Published 6:45 pm, Thursday, February 2, 2012

Photo: Tim Fischer

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John Petree, right, assistant exeutive director of Region 18, hands out the packets listing UIL realignment Thursday to eager coaches and staff at the Region 18 Service Center. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram less

John Petree, right, assistant exeutive director of Region 18, hands out the packets listing UIL realignment Thursday to eager coaches and staff at the Region 18 Service Center. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland ... more

Photo: Tim Fischer

MHS, Lee get pretty much what they expected from UIL

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No realignment is ever perfect, but when the University Interscholastic League announced new districts for the 2012-2014 school years, athletic directors in the new District 2-5A were relieved as much as anything else.

The new nine-team Class 5A district that will go from the Panhandle to the Concho River is similar to the 10-team behemoth that was created in 2008, but what is different this time around was there were expectations of this coming and they were preparing for it.

Lee and Midland High will be in the new district with longtime rivals Odessa Permian, Odessa High, Abilene High, Abilene Cooper, and will be joined by San Angelo Central, Lubbock Coronado and Amarillo Tascosa. It's a reunion of sorts of the District 2-5A created in 2008, but one where officials know more what to expect.

"I tell you what, there was no panic today," Midland ISD Executive Director of Athletics Todd Howey said. "The last time we went through this big realignment with Amarillo and Lubbock, our cell phones were burning up and we were burning up the Internet. Now we are done already as we've already drawn for our schedules (for football) and it's been a pretty calm day."

Howey said the district's athletic directors had met in Lamesa two weeks ago and tentatively set up the football schedule for a seven-team and nine-team district. It was a move to pre-empt realignment to make the process a little easier on Thursday, and in the future.

University Interscholastic League Athletic Director Mark Cousins said on Thursday they talked a lot about what to do with the Class 5As in West Texas, and he said that keeping Abilene with those schools was the best option. But he added that with Amarillo High, Lubbock Monterey and Lubbock High dropping it made for some tough choices.

"It was something that we debated and talked about to do what was best for everybody involved," Cousins said. "We came to the determination that we thought that was best. Certainly, remembering what happened (in 2008) and the discussion at that time that was part of our thought process and those discussions did come into play."

But plenty of work still remains, especially in scheduling.

The hard part will be putting together schedules in sports such as basketball, baseball, softball and soccer, and balancing the extensive travel with the loss of school time. Plus, the eight-team district schedule decreases the amount of non-district games a team can play, which was something that Lubbock ISD Athletic Mark Ball said he was not a big fan of.

A perfect schedule is not likely, but the feeling is that the relationship is good enough between the athletic directors that as fair a schedule as possible will be made for the next two years.

"It's going to be extremely hard," said San Angelo ISD Athletic Director Jim Slaughter. "We have already had some discussions about moving certain sports to Friday and Saturday, depending on how far you go to travel. The travel part is going to be tough, but again we are in familiar territory and playing with people that we are used to playing with."

Some of the ideas being floated around for scheduling include doing Friday and Saturday games for teams that will have to travel long distances, and in baseball and softball the possibility of doubleheaders.

But unlike in 2008 when athletic officials in the district were scrambling to put together schedules, they feel more prepared with what has transpired and will make the process easier.

Midland ISD Superintendent Ryder Warren said he's never gotten really excited about realignment, knowing a school takes what they get and move on but said even with the travel expected he said he's confident it will work.

"The business person in me knows a larger district like that presents some more challenges, just from the travel and things we have to do," Warren said. "But it is what it is. Knowing our coaching staff the way I do, and all of our directors and fine arts people the way I do, they are not going to skip a beat."

Beyond the issues that will come from the creation of the district, the officials are glad to be working with people they know and to reform a district that features the same cities that were involved in the mid 1950s when each of the cities had only one high school, and when the Little Southwest Conference moniker began to be used.

"We maintained those traditions that we have with those schools," Ector County ISD Athletic Director Todd Vesely said. "We are all locked in, we are all the same and they are almost our brethren in athletics we've been doing this for so long."